In a historical move, nearly 50 women's organizations representing over 14 million women sent a letter to the Obama-Biden transition team, advocating for the creation of an Office on Women. Sara K. Gould signed the letter (text and signers below) for the Ms. Foundation. [A PDF version of the letter is available from the National Organization for Women.]

 

December 16, 2008

 

President-elect Barack Obama

Vice President-elect Joe Biden

c/o Obama-Biden Transition Team

Valerie Jarrett, John Podesta, Pete Rouse, Dana Singiser

 

Dear President-Elect Obama and Vice President-Elect Biden:

 

As leaders of women’s organizations and advocates for women’s equality, collectively representing over 14 million women, we are writing to elaborate on the need for historic levels of women’s appointments and the need to restore and strengthen executive branch offices for women.

 

We applaud your initial appointments of talented women and we encourage you to further gender balance your White House, Cabinet, and executive appointments. The U.S., with women composing just 17% of the members of Congress, ranks 71st among the world’s parliaments in representation of women. With women so underrepresented in Congress, we believe it is crucial for women’s representation to increase dramatically at the executive branch of decision-making. Many of us will be submitting names of excellent and diverse women for your consideration.

 

Like you, we believe that we are at a time of real change in our nation’s history. Through both words and actions, you have encouraged and challenged the nation to think transformationally.

 

In this spirit, we urge you to create a Cabinet-level Office on Women that will deal not only with the status of women, but with the many inequities women face in our society, our nation, and our world. Such an office is even more necessary today, because of the increased disparities and backward movement of the past eight years.

 

Although many countries have a Cabinet minister responsible for addressing women’s issues and concerns, it would be another historic “first” for the United States to recognize the importance of solving inequities faced by women as well as further empowering women and girls to reach for their dreams. The Director would hold cabinet rank and report directly to the President, and the new office would be responsible for, but not limited to, the following:

 

1. Impact Evaluation and Strategic Planning. The Office on Women would seek new ways to bring to this great country the full potential of tens of millions of women and girls of all races and from all walks of life through policies, inter-agency coordination, budgeting and initiatives that will bring us closer to equality.

 

The new Office on Women would evaluate federal programs, initiatives and policies for their impact on women (addressing both opportunities and inequities) and improve their effectiveness through coordination and strategic planning. The Office would have leadership of the reconstituted White House Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach as well as the restored Interagency Council on Women. It would also be charged with preparing a coordinated budget for all efforts aimed at achieving the equality of women.

 

Because women, especially women of color, are differently affected by so many laws and policies -- from health care to labor to the economy -- it is critical that the impact on women be "part of the picture" as each and every critical decision is made. A cabinet-level office is the most effective way to accomplish this goal. Many of our federal programs were designed at a time when women's roles in our society were very different, and they should be reviewed and reconsidered.

 

The disparate treatment of women and the disparate impact of seemingly gender-neutral policies are so systemic that they cut across departmental lines and require an intersectional approach. More importantly, women need an advocate at the policy-making table whose specific responsibility is considering and weighing in on the potential of decisions to positively or negatively impact women’s opportunities for advancement. We cannot expect the few women at the table to bear this responsibility in addition to the responsibilities of their designated agency.

 

2. Interdepartmental Coordination [Interagency Council on Women]. Currently, women's programs are housed in many different departments, including Labor, Defense, Health and Human Services, Justice, and many others. Some of these offices are focused on making sure women's needs are addressed adequately as each agency seeks to achieve its mission and deliver services, while others focus primarily on advancing women within the agency’s workforce. It is important that each government agency have an effective and strong office (or offices) on women that address both women as workers and women as clients of the agency. These offices could learn much from each other and could work together to bring more effective and timely change for women.

 

To effectively coordinate the work of the various federal departments and agencies, we urge that the work of the former Clinton-era Interagency Council on Women be taken up by the Office on Women. We recommend the council staff be composed of representatives of each of the agencies and departments who are "lent" to the Council. The work of the Council should be reviewing and assessing the work of all agencies and departments that serve women, coordinate government-wide women's initiatives, and ensure the various agency and departmental policies are in keeping with our national and international commitments to women.

3. Policy Initiatives, Outreach and Inreach [Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach]. The Office on Women should also include a restored and strengthened White House Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach. That office, under President Clinton, was very small and its director was a deputy assistant to the President. The purpose has been described as "outreach to keep women's organizations informed (and presumably supportive) of presidential initiatives, and 'inreach' to solicit views of national women's leaders for injection into White house staff offices as policy proposals were being formulated."

 

We believe the restored program should be strengthened in rank, staffing, and function, to include both a political function (interrelation with women elected officials) and a communications function (creating communications opportunities for the White House and providing support on women's issues and events).

It is crucial that there be a policy function to this effort addressing a full range of women's issues, including work/family balance and women's disproportionate poverty. This function would include review of new federal policies and budgets and their impact on women in a cross-departmental approach, in addition to the previous outreach and "inreach" functions.

 

4. Interrelation with Other Agencies. The Office on Women would interrelate with the Status of Women Commissions of many states, counties, and municipalities of our nation, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Status of Women Commission, as well as the women's ministries of many other nations.

 

Thank you for your consideration of these ideas. The extraordinary support you received from women in this election is testament to our confidence in your commitment to equality and change. We look forward to working with you and with the accomplished and visionary women and men who will bring new ideas and new initiatives to your administration.

 

Sincerely,

 

Eleanor Smeal, President

Feminist Majority

 

Kim Gandy, President

National Organization for Women

 

Lorraine Cole, Ph.D., CEO

YWCA USA

 

Lulu Flores, President

National Women’s Political Caucus

 

Dr. Elizabeth J. Clark, ACSW, MPH

Executive Director

National Association of Social Workers

 

Susan Scanlan

President, Women’s Research and Education Institute

Chair, National Council of Women’s Organizations

 

Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq., Chairperson

National Congress of Black Women

 

Eleanor Hinton Hoytt, President and CEO

Black Women’s Health Imperative

 

Nancy Ratzan, President

National Council of Jewish Women

 

Dolores Huerta, Founder and President

Dolores Huerta Foundation

 

Kimberly Otis, Executive Director

National Council of Women’s Organizations

 

Irene Natividad, President

Global Summit of Women

 

Hedy Ratner, Co-President

Women’s Business Development Center

 

Joan A. Kuriansky, Esq., Executive Director

Wider Opportunities for Women

 

Irma D. Herrera, Executive Director

Equal Rights Advocates

 

Martha Burk, Ph.D., President

Center for Advancement of Public Policy

 

Irasema Garza, President

Legal Momentum

 

Claudia S. Morrissey, MD, MPH, National President

American Medical Women’s Association

 

Jodie Evans, Co-Founder

CODEPINK: Women for Peace

 

Ashley B. Carson, J.D., Executive Director

OWL – The Voice of Midlife and Older Women

 

Faye Wattleton, President

Center for the Advancement of Women

 

Silvia Henriquez, Executive Director

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health

 

Marsha Zakowski, National President

Coalition of Labor Union Women

 

Marie C. Wilson, President & Founder

The White House Project

 

Rose M. Ditto, Ph.D., International President

General Federation of Women’s Clubs

 

Ilana Goldman, President

Women’s Campaign Forum

 

Loretta J. Ross, National Coordinator

SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective

 

Sara K. Gould, President and CEO

Ms. Foundation for Women

 

Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich, Ph.D., Chair

CCEJ, Inc. - Sojourner Truth Forum for Interactive Justice

 

Wilma L. Vaught, Brigadier General, USAF, Retired

President, Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation, Inc.

 

Leigh Wintz, Executive Director

Soroptomist International of the Americas

 

Carol Jenkins, Executive Director

Women’s Media Center

 

Linda Basch, Ph.D., President

National Council for Research on Women

 

Jill E. Adams, J.D., Executive Director

Law Students for Reproductive Justice

 

Melanie L. Campbell

Convener, Black Women’s Roundtable

National Coalition on Black Civic Participation

 

JoAnne Lyons Wooten, Interim President and CEO

Women Work! The National Network for Women’s Employment

 

Aisha S. Taylor, Executive Director

Women’s Ordination Conference

 

Julie Burton, Executive Director

Project Kid Smart

 

Sarah Harder, Chair

National Women’s Conference Committee

 

Pat Bakalian, Executive Director

Campaign for Gender Equality

 

Martha Allen, Ph.D, Director

Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press

 

Patricia Willis, Chair

Feminist Caucus of the American Humanist Association

 

Jennifer L. Pozner, Executive Director

Women in Media and News

 

Dr. Julia M. Watkins, Executive Director

Council on Social Work Education

 

Dr. Wynetta Frazier, National President

National Hook-Up of Black Women, Inc.

 

Ariel Dougherty, Director

Media Equity Collaborative

 

Wendy Pollack

Director, Women’s Law and Policy Project

Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law

 

[Source: Igniting Change: A Blog by the Ms. Foundation for Women]